Letters: State int'l standard school

I would like to comment on The Jakarta Post's interview with Deputy Minister of National Education Fasli Jalal (The Jakarta Post, March 18).

The establishment of state schools of "international standard" (bertaraf internasional) is entirely cosmetic with no real educational benefits that I can see.

It is also quite unnecessary - why not spend the money and resources on centers of excellence for national education? I recently visited a state senior high school of this type.

The most obvious differences were that the school charged much higher fees than a standard "SMA Negri" and that the classrooms were mostly air-conditioned. Apart from that all I could see were painfully inadequate attempts to teach national curriculum subjects in English.

The school had no access to native-English-speaking teachers and those who were trying to teach in English would have made a more positive contribution had they taught their subject in Bahasa Indonesia.

The whole exercise appeared to be a means for increasing income for those running the school.

David
Jakarta